Pillen Says State Is 'Making Progress' in Fixing Autism Therapy Abuse
by John Gage
(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
Governor Jim Pillen said the state was “on the right track” to continue to strengthen protections to make sure there was no more continued waste or abuse in the state’s payments for autism therapy.
“This has been — and still is — a problem, but my administration has worked hard to fix it and the data shows we are making progress,” Pillen said Tuesday in a post on social media. “Past legislatures tried to solve an autism treatment shortage by simply throwing money at the problem. When I took office in 2023 costs were skyrocketing. Out of state operators had sprung up and were taking advantage of the highest-in-America rates set by misguided legislators years before.”
Pillen said he had moved to fix the system before the discovery of high-profile cases of fraud in other states, like Minnesota. “The system was broken. I ordered it fixed. We had the courage and fortitude to bring rates down, even as special interests howled that treatment options would suffer.”
The governor’s remarks echo similar comments made by the Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Brian Hardin, who told The Plains Sentinel in March that other states should be looking to Nebraska as the model for how to fix their Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse issues.
Hardin’s comment were in response to Nebraska getting added with nine other states to an ongoing congressional investigation into Medicaid fraud. The investigation was triggered, in part, by a nearly 2000% increase since 2020 in spending on ABA services, which is therapy typically used for children with autism.
In 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services began tightening requirements in the program as costs rose in order to keep it sustainable. Pillen on Tuesday cited a New York Times article that showed Nebraska’s spending on autism therapy has leveled out since 2024, while other states like North Carolina, New York, and Oklahoma continue to rise.
The Trump administration in recent months has made cracking down on Medicaid fraud a top priority with Vice President JD Vance tasked with a “full-scale war on fraud.”
So far, the White House’s fraud task force has uncovered billions in alleged fraud and abuse as well as worked with federal prosecutors to charge individuals involved in major fraud schemes.
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.